Page 42 - Gates-AnnualReport-2017

Again, we have treasured being part of the development and growth of the Gates Summer Internship Program (GSIP), and other Gates Center friends have also enjoyed contributing gifts toward the program, individual interns’ stipends, event fees or scholarships. Together with the Gates Center staff, we remain committed to the success and sustainability of this program in the future. We are thrilled about the progress that has been made by the fine team at the Gates Center and even more excited about the potential of this GSIP program to inspire young people to pursue educational and career opportunities in this promising field. We hope you might be interested in learning more!
—Rhondda and Peter Grant
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN CELL BIOLOGY, STEM CELLS AND DEVELOPMENT (CSD)
Another ongoing educational initiative, which was spurred by our 2015 self-study reviewers’ recommendation, is our collaboration with and support of the Graduate Program in Cell Biology, Stem Cells and Development (CSD), directed by Bruce Appel, Ph.D., Gates Center member and Diane G. Wallach Chair in Pediatric Stem Cell Biology. This combined program is based on the premise that although medical use of stem cells holds great promise for treatment of human diseases and birth defects, to advance the use of stem cells in the clinic scientists must continue to pursue fundamental discoveries as to how cells function and how cells in embryos form the different tissues of the body.
In the area of graduate recruitment, Gates Center support enabled CSD to recruit two first year graduate students in addition to the four student slots provided by the Graduate School. For the second year in a row, the program had seven students accept offers—one more than the total allotment of six students. The Graduate School provided funds to support the additional student. According to Dr. Appel, Gates Center support has helped propel CSD’s student group to an all- time high of 33. As previously mentioned, one student who matriculated in 2017, Madison Rogers, was a Gates Center Summer Program intern. The Gates Center looks forward to incorporating Dr. Appel into its future programing to familiarize our summer interns with this superb program.
The Gates Center’s support also enabled nine students to travel to scientific conferences in 2017. These meetings
included the Keystone Symposium on Mitochondria, Metabolism, and Heart, Santa Fe, NM; Keystone Symposium on Adult Neurogenesis, Squaw Creek, CA; IUBMB Focused Meeting on the Emerging Concepts of the Neuronal Cytoskeleton, Puerto Varas, Chile; Digestive Disease Week, Chicago; EMBO conference on Gene Regulatory Mechanisms in Neural Fate Decisions, Alicante, Spain; American Society of Cell Biology, Philadelphia; and Society for Neuroscience, Washington DC.
Finally, the Gates Center helped with program recruitment and course support. Center funds covered the costs for the CSD Admissions Committee Chair, Jeff Moore, to visit several small colleges in Missouri and Iowa, as well as for a CSD postdoc, Rwik Sen, to represent CSD at the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) meeting, the largest diversity-in-STEM conference in the country. Gates Center support also paid for materials for our Stem Cell and Developmental Models graduate courses and underwrote a portion of two sessions of the program’s summer Bootcamp, in which CSD graduate students provide introductory training for over 30 summer research interns.
We look forward to continuing to help support, grow and promote this superb program.
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